FIG. 5 illustrates a printer Pa discussed in JP 11-199097 A. The printer Pa uses a continuous label sheet LA obtained by temporarily attaching glued labels onto a band-shaped liner sheet at equal intervals as a paper sheet. In the printer Pa, a label roll 100 obtained by rolling up the continuous label sheet LA is installed in a feeding reel 101, and the continuous label sheet LA is extracted and fed from the feeding reel 101 using a feeding roller 102, so that the print unit 103 performs printing on the label.
The print unit 103 has a thermal type print head 104 and a platen roller 105 to perform printing on the label through heat transfer using an ink ribbon 107 fed from the ribbon feeding mechanism 106. The printer Pa has a guide roller 108 and a sensor 109 capable of optically detecting a position of the label L in the course of feeding the continuous label sheet LA in order to allow the print unit 103 to perform printing on a predetermined position of the label L.
In the print unit 103, the print head 104 is provided on one side of a feeding path used to feed the continuous label sheet LA as a paper sheet. As illustrated in FIG. 6, a tip of the cable harness 110 stretching to one side of the feeding path is detachably connected to the print head 104 by interposing a connector 111. The print head 104 is detachably installed in the head bracket 112. The head bracket 112 is pivotally installed in a machine housing. The head bracket 112 can be pivoted between a printing position in which the print head 104 faces the platen roller 105 provided on the other side of the feeding path and a separated position in which the print head 104 is separated from the platen roller 105.
In order to perform maintenance or replacement of the print head 104, the head bracket 112 is pivoted to place the print head 104 in the separated position. In addition, in the separated position, the maintenance or replacement work is performed by detaching the print head 104 from the head bracket 112 and extracting the cable harness 110 at some extent while the cable harness 110 is connected or by removing the connector 111 and disconnecting the print head 104 from the cable harness 110 (refer to JP 2005-53159 A).